Natural materials including biological surfaces often have desirable characteristics or properties. The surface of a cicada wing, for example, is antireflective. The surface of a lotus leaf is water-repellent and self cleaning. While biological surfaces often have desirable characteristics or properties, the ability to replicate biological materials including biological surfaces is difficult when using a biospecimen as a pattern.
Biospecimens have been used as templates for nanoimprint molds that can hopefully be used for reconstructing the biological surface in another material. For instance, a nanoimprint that is created from a biospecimen template could be used to construct a surface that has the properties of the biospecimen template.
Unfortunately, biospecimens have substantial limitations that make it difficult to create a successful nanoimprint mold—particularly for wide area nanopattern formations. One weak point of bio-replicating is that the nanopattern of biospecimens typically has a relatively small surface area. In addition, biospecimens often have imperfect repeating patterns within the small surface area. As a result, bio-specimens have been unsuccessful in wide area nanopattern formation.